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Building the ideal city: Female memorial praxis in Christine de Pizan's Cite des Dames
Studies in the Literary Imagination, Spring 2003 by McCormick, Betsy
In the same fashion, an architectural mnemonic emphasizes thoughtful preparation and order prior to creating a system within the "mind's citadel." Furthermore, such methodical preparation is necessary in constructing a memory system because what to forget is just as important as what to remember. So, in Christine's system, any existing anti-feminist misinterpretations must be removed and forgotten in order for the new pro-feminist case she is building to be positioned in the reader's memory. The narrator explains to the trio of allegorical figures that her mind is a tabernacle trouble et obscur (638; "troubled and dark tabernacle"; 15) in which she has been dwelling as a simple et ingnorent estudiente (638; "simple and ignorant student"; 15). Consequently, before the establishment of the city of new memories, the divine ladies must remove any incorrect or inappropriate memories from the narrator's mind.
The ensuing refutation of the anti-feminist tradition metaphorically clears the ground preparatory to laying the foundation for the new city. Raison leads Christine to the Field of Letters and advises her to use her pioche d'inquisition (640; "pick of cross examination"; 16). Christine is to use this pick to remove the misshapen stones of the anti-feminist tradition from the ground-her own mind as well as her reader's-preparatory to laying out the guidelines of the new city. Raison clearly delineates the inappropriate and incorrect memories that must be removed in order to create new ones: as a result, the ordes pierres broconneuses et noires (643; "black, dirty and uneven stones"; 18) that form Christine's troubled and dark tabernacle stand in direct contrast to the belles reluysans pierres (787; "clean and shining bricks"; 99), the new pro-feminist images, that will be used to build the new City of Ladies.22 The first basket of dirt that Raison removes symbolizes her answer to Christine's question as to why male authorities attack women for vice and inconstancy. As Christine continues to "dig" the black and dirty stones out of the ground, Raison refutes multiple anti-feminist accusations and authorities, including Aristotle, Virgil, Ovid, and Cicero. Raison accuses these authorities of misinterpretation, claiming that they, in fact, are the ones who have read and interpreted improperly (mesprendre; 646; "mis-take"; 20). She contrasts such male misinterpretation with the properly virtuous assessment of women by St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and, most especially, Christ. Once the refutation of anti-feminist authorities is complete, Raison reveals the grant et large fosse (676; "large and wide ditch"; 38) cleared by the removal of this dirt. This section of the Cite symbolizes the preparation of the groundwork for the city, with Reason's counterarguments removing the anti-feminist "dirt" from the narrator's mind in order to clear a space to build the new city and new memory.
Once the ground of the mind is cleared and prepared, the series of loci can be established. Significantly, Christine here switches construction implements, exchanging her pioche d'inquisition for the truelle de ta plume (676; "trowel of her pen"; 38) to create the foundation of the city's walls. She signals to her reader that Semiramis will serve as the first locus, or brick, of the city's foundation when she has Raison declare: "Car voycy une grande et large pierre que je vueil qui soit la premiere assisse ou fondement de ta cite" (676; "for you can see here a great and large stone which I want to place as the first in the first row of stones in the foundation of your City"; 38). As a city-builder herself, Semiramis seems a logical choice on which to found a mnemonic city. A woman of great physical strength, Semiramis repeatedly battles to defend her people and expand her kingdom, much as Christine herself is doing in writing the Cite. Raison also stresses her measures to rebuild, strengthen, and defend the city of Babylon: "mais encores plus l'enforca ceste dame de plusieurs deffenses et fist faire autour larges et parfons fosses" (679; "This lady strengthened the city even more with many defenses and had wide and deep moats dug around it"; 39).23 Christine further emphasizes Semiramis's bravery, courage, vigor, and strength since she is using this exemplum to refute the anti-feminist depiction of women as weak and unstable.
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